Extraordinary
by WindyWords123
Summary: More realistic AU in which, once upon a time, Phineas and Ferb were normal.
1. Extraordinary

_A reviewer has told me that this is hard to understand if you don't know what's going on. So: Basically, Heinz accidentally killed Vanessa, Perry, a human police officer for my purposes, arrived on the scene and Heinz, kind of insane with grief, pinned the blame on Perry and kidnapped Phineas and Ferb. He then tortured them for two years, after which Phineas and Ferb were let go into the regular world again. Before all this happened, they were two normal kids, after getting kidnapped and experimented upon, it made them a lot like their show counterparts except more traumatized. Candace is considered crazy due to reporting their schemes, so they reveal themselves to their parents to keep her from being committed. While they're doing all this, Perry tracks down Heinz and he's scheduled to be executed but Phineas and Ferb speak up for him, and then everyone lives happily ever after, or close enough._

* * *

Phineas and Ferb Flynn-Fletcher are two perfectly normal eight year olds enjoying a perfectly normal fall day.

After all, everything starts somewhere...

~-!-~

… But we came in during the middle.

The middle of the beginning, that is.

Let's rewind.

Here we are: Another ordinary fall day. A week before, as it turns out. It's a Saturday. The air is crisp, clean. A girl sighs dramatically and snaps her cellphone shut. She goes to see what her father is doing, as she hears a loud clanking sound from his lab.

She complains as her father asks her to give him that part, please. Steps closer as he steps away, to let her see it better, and then throws an arm over her shoulder as he happily claims he has no idea what it does.

He is Heinz Doofenshmirtz, a very intelligent engineer and an evil scientist, on his days off. Or so he says. He's never done anything particularly evil. Remember his name; he'll be important.

She is Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, a gothic teenager who, despite everything, loves her father. Though she'd never admit it. She's a teenager, you know. Don't bother learning her name; she won't be around for long.

The invention blows up. The duo does not end up comically charred. There's nothing comical about this in the least.

Oops! Perhaps Heinz is evil, after all.

~-!-~

And so now here we are again. The middle of the beginning. Two ordinary boys.

But we missed something.

They have a cousin. Or, to be strictly correct, a cousin once removed. He's a police officer and his name is Perry.

He arrives on the scene, and somehow he ends up fighting a deranged maniac, and very easily winning.

"Who are you?" The man screams, tears streaming down his face as Perry pins him to the ground. "You took my Vanessa! You took her!"

Perry is mute. He couldn't tell this lunatic his name, even if he had any desire to do so. He has not seen the girl, but no one deserves death. Especially a girl as young as her. He thinks of Candace and shivers; his job is rarely this eventful.

They take the man in and – he escapes.

Heinz Doofenshmirtz has not had an easy life. His parents hated him. His brother hated him. His wife hated him. His daughter, Vanessa, was... was...

He'd always tried to be good. A good son, brother, husband, father.

But the world hated Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Well, that was alright. He hated the world right back.

~-!-~

He has decided.

He has had a week, and he has decided.

It is that man's fault. The blue-haired one, the one who wouldn't speak.

Children are precious, the world loves children. He had loved his Vanessa, and she was a child, was was _was _a horrible word, unforgiving, _past tense. _Unfair, unfair, life had always been unfair and so – and so.

And so this.

Children.

Two ordinary boys, and maybe, just maybe, if he figures out where it all went wrong maybe he can fix it maybe he can _get her back. _

So – inventions. No more engineering. Evil. He is so evil, and they, they are just children, just ordinary children, how dare he his _Vanessa – _

His Vanessa was gone, was all. Maybe if he just, maybe he can, there are so many _maybes – _

Heinz runs. Of course. Children, children, the world loves children, won't let them get taken away by the evil_evil _man but it let his Vanessa get away, oh yes. She's gone now. Poof! Bye bye, no more Vanessa. Nice or otherwise.

The boys are nice. Invariably. Ordinary nice little children.

But they aren't bringing back his Vanessa. Oh no. These boys, they, they aren't helping. They can't, he can't, he is, they are just children, after all, and he may hate the world but he doesn't hate children, after all.

He is not so evil as that.

He lets them go.

~-!-~

And they are not so ordinary, any more.

Phineas and Ferb Flynn-Fletcher are extraordinary, now. Two little boys build a roller coaster, a race car, a beach. All gone by the time Mom and Dad get home. They've been around a maniac for too long now. Phineas, Phineas chatters on about nothing and Ferb does not chatter at all, and always, even as they build and build and _build, _they remain close, touching if possible, not separated by anything.

They were step brothers before.

Now... now they are closer than twins. Phineas chatters on and Ferb doesn't need to talk, does he, because Phineas knows anyway. No need to talk, no telepathy required, just a few failed inventions and a bit of trauma and there we go, so much better and so much worse than new. They are damaged, shattered, but they reflect each other, better, _more, _a spaceship a supercomputer a shrinking machine no limits, chase around the endless reflections maybe someday you'll find yourself again.

Three friends and a sister and an entire city that can hardly believe its eyes. Oh, and Perry. Where were you, again? You missed it. We missed you.

But no need to say that. Phineas chatters on and on and on and somehow he doesn't say much of anything, but Perry says less because Perry says nothing, you see. He's mute. And it's better, really. The boys were ordinary once, everyday usual _bland_, before an evil_evil _scientist with a grudge against the world interfered.

Perry won't let him go. He hurt Perry's boys, hurt his boys so they have to hold hands hold hearts maybe if they hold tight enough they won't fall apart, hold each other together through almost two years because no one else is going to do it.

And Candace.

Candace is their sister, and she's hurt, too. She'd almost moved on, almost lived again. And now? Now machines, impossible machines, vanish before her eyes, before she can do anything, before she can bring a halt to things that might hurt her brothers, her baby brothers, her _missing _brothers, hide and seek and it was a good long hide but now she's sought and she's _found _and her little brothers aren't going to hide away again.

Except they are, because her brothers are extraordinary. And she can only mouth objections as impossibilities take form and crumble away before anyone sees, because her little brothers are damaged and maybe she isn't helping, this time. Maybe they don't like being extraordinary. Maybe, just maybe, they trust her, trust her with the truth, the extra, where they don't trust Mom and Dad, where they think that Mom and Dad need normality. The way they needed normality, once, before it was ripped away from them.

But Candace? Candace is normal, ordinary, still, and she sees the way her brothers shattered. She doesn't want them to get any more broken. So she tries –

And tries –

And tries –

To tell someone. About a roller coaster, a race car, a beach. But no. They are broken, and they are a little young for that type of thing, don't you think? Candace, you're overreacting. Are you okay?

No.

Is the conclusion, because there's no roller coaster, no race car, no beach when they get home, because Phineas and Ferb are extraordinary, now, but Mom and Dad don't know that, and ordinary little boys don't build a spaceship a supercomputer a shrinking machine.

So –

Candace isn't alright.

But now? Phineas and Ferb are nice. Beyond anything else, they are nice. Their sister _is _alright, and if all it takes is a little trust, they can do that. They can do anything.

Mom and Dad know that, now. They know about the extra.

Phineas and Ferb aren't ordinary, any more.

They're shattered but they reflect so much, so very much, but not Perry. Perry isn't anywhere. Where did you go, Perry? Why can't you stay with us?

He's busy.

Out busting, out fighting, out _finding _because you can't run forever, and the world has always hated Heinz Doofenshmirtz, hasn't it. Perry certainly does, now.

And it's jail time for Doofenshmirtz, and trial, and almost, almost death. Bye bye, world! And good riddance, really.

But Phineas and Ferb are nice.

Doofenshmirtz is broken too, you know, and they do. They convince. They bring to tears. Heinz Doofenshmirtz has always been hated, but somehow, through some quirk of probability, they do not. They pardon him, let him go, because Phineas and Ferb aren't ordinary anymore.

Perry is there. Candace is there. Mom and Dad are there.

Maybe they're broken, maybe they're extraordinary, but Phineas and Ferb have their family back.

And that's enough, in the end.


	2. Impossibilities

_A bit of elaboration meant to illustrate how Phineas and Ferb change. More may come with different characters. Or maybe it won't. I wouldn't know, I'm just the author._

* * *

Phineas and Ferb were having a conversation about a time machine. Due to the fact that they were eight, no actual logistics were being considered.

"Man, that'd be so cool. You could go back to the dinosaurs. We could ride them! I have a T-Rex!" Phineas said.

Ferb nodded, equally enamored with the idea. "I could ride a pterodactyl and then we could fight!"

"Yeah! 'Cept that wouldn't be fair cuz you can fly."  
Ferb scowled at the pavement, contemplating this. "But I'd come down to attack. Sides, T-Rexes are really tall."

"I guess." Phineas said. "Bam! Bam! I shot you with my ray gun!" He giggled.

"Hey, no fair! We're on dinosaurs!"

"We got a time machine, 'member? We went to the future first and _I _have a ray gun." Phineas said triumphantly. "And I shot you, so you're dead."

"Well then I got a vaporizer! Bam, you're dead too!"

"Hey, you can't do that!" Phineas stopped and scowled at his step brother. "You were dead!"

"Yeah, but my pterodactyl dodged!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Hey, what's that?" Phineas interrupted the pointless argument, staring at the odd machine sitting in the middle of the road.

Phineas and Ferb were two ordinary little boys.

"I dunno. Some kinda machine thingy." Ferb's eyes lit up. "Maybe it's a time machine!"

"Nah, I bet it's not." Even so, Phineas drew closer to the machine, curious. "It's probably just a thingy. Like a weird computer or somethin."

"Why's it in the road, then?" Ferb asked. "It doesn't have a screen or anything."

"I dunno." Phineas crouched by the strange machine. "Someone lost it, maybe? Dare you to touch it!"

Ferb drew back. "Nuh-uh. It's probably bad an' stuff."

"Chicken!" Phineas accused, grinning.

"Phin-"

"Bawk bawk bawwwk!" Phineas said, with appropriate arm motions.

"Fine. But you gotta touch it too." Ferb said, huffing at Phineas.

"Okay! Three... two... one!" The two reached out and touched the machine at the same time.

That was a mistake, as it turns out.

It only ever takes one.

~-!-~

"Where am I?" Phineas said, squinting at his surroundings. It was dark. Very dark. And something just wasn't right. There had been a big machine and then they'd gone to sleep and, and, and then he'd woken up here. Was Ferb here?

"Phineas?" Ferb _was_ here, and he sounded lost and scared, just like Phineas.

"I'm over here!" Phineas said. "C'mon." They groped around in the darkness until Ferb brushed Phineas' arm and very nearly fell over.

"What happened?" Phineas asked, grasping Ferb's hand so he didn't fall over again.

"I dunno. Maybe it _was _a time machine, an' it's nighttime now." Ferb said.

"But there's no moon or stars!" Phineas said.

"Well, maybe a building got built where we were. I dunno."

"Yeah, but..." Phineas glared at where he thought Ferb's head was, annoyed at the logical conclusion. "Why don't they got any lights on? Or windows or anything?"

"Maybe there was a big nuclear poclypse or something!" Ferb said. "And we're way underground, and there's spies and everything, and then we getta go out and save the world and stuff."

"Ooh! An' we could have hovercrafts an' lasers and spy things!" Phineas said.

"I'm afraid not." The voice wasn't what you'd consider an _evil _voice. It was whiny and high-pitched, for one thing. "I am going to find out what went wrong. Something went wrong, you know, I crossed a few wires or put the battery in incorrectly or something, but I'll figure out what I did wrong. You'll see. And then I'll do it right, and Vanessa will be back. Because I did something wrong. There was something wrong, and it's all his* fault."

A light switched on, impossibly bright after the pitch-black of their cell.

Ferb looked at Phineas. Phineas looked at Ferb. They both looked at the man holding them captive. "Who're you?" Phineas finally demanded.

"Where's my dad and mom?" Ferb added.

"Are we in the future?" Phineas asked suspiciously. "With a big nuclear pocalypse and stuff?"

"No." The man grinned, and had Phineas and Ferb been a little older, they would have been scared. "No, you are not."

~-!-~

_One year, five days later_

~-!-~

"Ferb?" Phineas whispered. Ferb said nothing. But then he didn't have to. "It's been a year."

A year in hell.

A year of pain, of insane rants, of constant running. A year of only each other, and Doofenshmirtz. But who was counting? Who ticked off the seconds, willing them to go faster? Who carefully marked the days?

Two lonely little brothers; lost, whisked away by a madman in the middle of the day. They counted. Didn't they count for anything?

Maybe not. It had been a year. A full year. No one had found them yet. Perry was a _police officer, _and he hadn't found them.

"Yeah." Phineas said, continuing the conversation without any audible input from his brother. "Yeah, I'm... I'm lonely too."

Ferb wrapped his brother in a hug.

But forgetting, erasing, a year, a year of pain, of loneliness, of _torture..._

That would take more than a hug.

Doofenshmirtz was coming. The brothers fell silent.

They embraced again, after, and Ferb's shirt was so coated with a year of torture that the tears almost rolled off it onto the filthy floor.

~-!-~

_Nine months, one week, two days later_

~-!-~

Out.

Finally, they were free.

They cling to each other as they're found, reported, touched, handled. It was all so _glorious, _to be free, to be _away._

But they are damaged, now. Even as they pounce on their family, together again, they cling to each other. Not and/or, anymore. And. Phineas And Ferb. No Phineas. No Ferb. Together. Phineas and Ferb.

They have listened, out of lack of anything else to do, to a madman's rants, but even a madman can be a genius. They have been tortured, experimented upon, but every so often, experiments work. So now – now they are brilliant. A brilliant light shining through broken glass.

They smile at the world, mouths stretching to impossible widths. Even Ferb, who does not smile anymore. Ferb does not smile, or cry, or talk. Ferb is a mask.

That's alright. Phineas can do enough emoting, enough talking for the both of them, because they are _out _and it is _summer _and isn't this glorious? An entire life stretches away ahead of them, ready to be seized.

Except, of course, for therapy.

Phineas and Ferb do not enjoy being cooped up, anymore. They enjoy being split up even less. They fight their way back to each other, with screams and temper tantrums and stony silence. Even violence. They are Phineas and Ferb. No ors here. If violence is necessary, so be it. If disassembling the lock is necessary, so be it.

They fight their way back to their family, to Candace-Perry-Mom-Dad. Friends fade away, peripheral. They had a lot of friends before, but they barely remember them. They barely remember anything from before.

They are free, now. What does before matter?

"Hey Ferb! I know what we're going to do today!" Phineas declares, as they rescue (and sometimes borrow, but never steal) tools and parts from anywhere and everywhere. They are a bit young, and a bit damaged, to be ordering things in.

They build a roller coaster, that first day. It is not commercial grade, because they are ten and working with borrowed parts. But it is certainly functional, and they are ten and working with borrowed parts.

They disassemble it just before their mother sees, and Candace can only gape at the parts scattered on the lawn.

They reuse them, of course, no sense being wasteful. A roller coaster, a race car, a beach. A spaceship, a supercomputer, a shrinking machine. All with borrowed, recycled parts. All gone before Mom and Dad can see.

"This is _dangerous_!" Candace yells. She sees it all. "Don't you understand? You're just kids! You can't _do _that stuff, you guys! Mom and Dad literally think I'm insane and I'm starting to believe it too, because normal kids don't build _and _disassemble a roller coaster in one day!"

Phineas and Ferb share a glance and an entire conversation. Building is their _world_, doesn't she get that they can finally _do _stuff again and they can't just sit around inside, can they? Phineas says, without articulating a word. But Candace needs us, Ferb objects. They think she's crazy. She's our sister, Phin. Yeah, but... Phineas considers and runs through a thousand scenarios. Family comes out on top of Phineas and Ferb every time. Alright.

"Okay. We'll tell them. And show them." Phineas says, without a hint of reluctance. It is there, of course, and obvious to anyone who know how to look. But only one person does.

And they do, and Mom and Dad are shocked, and things almost don't turn out at all. But... somewhere along the way, Phineas and Ferb became as fragile as a spider's web (and simultaneously as strong as a diamond) and somewhere along the way, their family realized that. There are safety guidelines, and better parts, and supervision, but impossibilities still grow and disappear in the Flynn-Fletcher backyard.

And there is one more impossibility to be taken care of.

Forgiveness.

Who could ever forgive their torturer, their captor, the one who single-handedly ruined their lives?

Phineas and Ferb do. It takes hours of conversation, and some of it is even out loud. It takes anger and sadness and love and recognizing that at least a few hairline cracks have begun to seal.

It is their forgiveness that keeps a man from dying.

By all rights, they should not function and he should be dead. But they have left the realm of possibility, and who's to say what's right now?

Phineas and Ferb are impossibilities.

Perhaps, in some twisted way, that is a good thing.

* * *

_*His being Perry. Doofenshmirtz is not exactly sane in this story, so it doesn't make sense._


End file.
